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Talking the IPad, Kids, Making Money and Video

You can book it right now that it will be the product that kids of this generation grow up with and look back on with affection just like we did with the first video games. Video games changed how we grew up. The IPad will change how kids grow up.

Apple was brilliant in how they cultivated apps for the IPhone and Touch. With so many apps for kids, any parent with young kids and either of these 2 devices will tell you that their kids use and love them. In fact, it was this very reason that I helped create Puzzle Palace for the IPhone. It allows my kids to take the pictures they take and turn them into puzzles. My 3 year old loves it.

The IPad will take this to the next level. I recognize that its very expensive for most families right now. Hopefully that will change over time. If it does, you can bet every home with kids will have an IPad. And the first person to create the “kidproof” covering will make money as well (Hint to entrepreneurs) On the flipside, the minute these devices hit critical mass in families, the DVD market for kids, who watch the same movie over and over will end as we know it. Download Scooby Do one time and the need to hassle with all those DVDs for the kids at home or on trips becomes a distant memory. A relic of an older generation.

Thats big.

Whats also big is the exclusion of flash. The reason is obvious. No flash. Far less streaming over 3G. Less streaming over 3G means less bandwidth consumed. Less bandwidth consumed means ATT can offer a GREAT price on the 3G data service. I personally have never had problems with the ATT Network. The limits on 3G streaming probably means I wont going forward either. Thats a good thing.

Its big that there is no USB port. As a content producer thats not a good thing. It means that Apple wants to force us through ITunes to sell content. It will be the path of least resistance for consumers to add content to the IPad and a HUGE source of revenue for Apple. Im sure there will be work around alternatives, but they wont be able to match the simplicity of the ITunes Store.

Outside the Apple Universe, the company that should be licking its chops is Dish Network. Their SlingBox product just became a grand slam. I absolutely LOVE the sling box app I run on my IPod Touch to watch NBA League Pass games, HDNet in a hotel room and other shows that I record on my DVR. I cant wait to put it on the IPad and its big screen.

And finally, if i was just out of school and fluent in all things Wi Fi , networking and wireless, I would immediately go door to door offering to fine tune your home’s wireless network. With new HDTVs coming out with Wi FI, the IPad, SlingBox, Netflix Streaming and other applications consuming tons of bandwidth in the home, it is an ABSOLUTE certainty that 99pct of home networks can be improved and perform significantly better. Be that kid in your neighborhood that comes in and fine tunes everyone’s wi fi in their home for 50 or 100 bucks (or more if you live in a fancy part of town) and you will make some good money.

Tell the World Please !

55 thoughts on “Talking the IPad, Kids, Making Money and Video”

My company, FreshPlanet (http://www.freshplanet.com), is already hard at work on a great game title for kids between 2 to 8. It will be released solely on the iPad as the screen size of the iPhone is too small for what we wanted do to. As soon as we saw the iPad in January we immediately thought this would be the ideal platform for smart games to teach kids lots of things: letters, numbers, colors, shape, puzzle solving, etc… I can guarantee that kids will love it. Stay tuned for an April 3rd launch :-)

At a high level, you need to create that connection between player and game that stimulates the brain to a level of total immersion into the storyline and characters that are developed throughout the online experience
Here are a few ideas that can get you started:
1. Character development – your online game will need to have a multitude of character personalities to choose from. How you develop the character and their approach to the story is critical in helping them become the extension of the player. Once the characteristics and personalities are established, the designer needs to continue the personality throughout the entire game.
2. Compelling Storyline – Fantasy, Historical Battle situations or Medieval conflicts are among the many areas that can serve as the basis for the tale and premise the game is based on. Whether the situation is an interplanetary invasion or a journey to the center of the earth, your story must hold the interest of the player and the mission they are signing up for.
3. Environment simulation – Once the characters and storyline is developed, the simulated locations must be tied into the areas to complete the vision. Players insert themselves into the characters, the mission and will visualize the specifics of the locations in their minds before picking up the controller. Your graphical environment must deliver on that promise and expectation to make the final link to the online game enthusiast.

There are a lot of mixed feelings towards the Ipad, which is evident by the comments here. The Ipad is going to be one of the few products that changes a consumers behavior. Twitter for example was originally seen as useless, because there was no parallel in people’s lives to demonstrate that they would use a limited micro-blogging format. The product, however, changed the behavior of its users and people soon discovered that there was immense value in the system as a means of sharing content. I’m sure the Ipad is going to do the same thing. We’ll all be using it. It’s just not clear how yet.

I agree with a few of the above posts that it may be a bigger hit among the older kids– high school and college age. The problem with the younger market is that you have a device– the best selling of its kind ever– that is inhabiting that niche already, the Nintendo DS. Of course they are quite different in many ways, but the newer DSi takes photos, you can manipulate pics and sound with it, has a pretty good internet browser, various apps, some pretty decent “homebrew” ect., and there is no question that it has the higher quality games. I love my iPod touch, but honestly mostly just for my music; for games my DS has no competition from it, and I really prefer the DS’ Opera browser to Safari on my iPod, and though they both have a touch screen controls are overall far better and easier on the DS. Among students on the campus I work at I see iPods more frequently but taking notice of what I see kids with in restaurants, airports, ect., there is no question that the DS is king (even the PSP, which does more in many respects, comes nowhere close in popularity), and parents when making the choice of what to get are going to compare pricetags and kid-friendly features when buying a device like this for children. Most on gaming boards I’ve read don’t think it will be any sort of competition to consoles; a recent article sort of showing the same attitude from Nintendo and Sony- http://ds.ign.com/articles/106/1065141p1.html .

Not sure if this has already been mentioned above, but as it currently stands, the iPhone SlingBox App only works over 3G when the device is jail-broken. If not, a Wi-Fi connection is required. Now the NBA offers it’s Mobile League Pass App which allows fans to access the games on their iPhones via 3G, but streaming one optimized “channel” has very different bandwidth implications for AT&T than getting all of your Dish Network channels over 3G via SlingBox. Seeing as how neither Apple nor Dish Network will get a cut from any jail-broken applications, how do you see each respective giant moving forward in both in terms of truly restricting bandwidth and jail-breaking in general?

I always love your fresh takes on business and tech ideas; and I always learn something new when I read your blog. This time in particular, I really enjoyed your take on the lack of Flash on the iPhone and iPad. I was always thought that this was because of the Apple vs. Adobe battle; and never thought of it as the conservation of bandwidth. Also, I had no idea you could watch NBA games on your iPhone. I’ll definitely have to check that out!

Lack of Flash is a blessing. Almost all Flash content is ads or useless glitz, eye candy, distraction. I don’t need it or want it. I run my desktop and laptop with Flash turned off. Flash is a resource hog that causes crashes. Thankfully Apple did not implement Flash on the iPhone or iPod Touch. I’m glad I won’t be subject to it on the iPad either.

As to keyboard, the iPad will work with keyboards just fine. Bluetooth wireless or connected to the dock. When you want a keyboard just use one. Otherwise the onscreen keyboard will do or minor entering of URLs and search terms.

the reason they have a cheap price on the data services is that 90% of the use will be home/office with wifi, not that lack of flash reducing bandwidth. The ipad is simply a giant iphone that you cannot make a call on. the guy sitting next to you with a laptop has a keyboard and flash. the guy on the other side of you using his smartphone can put it in his pocket and make a call. the guy sitting across from you with the kindle can read books/newspapers/blogs with live feeds, and hold the device with one hand while flipping pages. the ipad will become at least as popular as the old “tablet PCs”

The Ipad looks awesome and I’m sure you will see thousands of kids on college campuses have them the day it comes out. The tablet has always been a great invention but just hasn’t been price friendly. This will be awesome for kids to take quick notes on in school. From a business standpoint, I would have to pass on the Ipad. The keyboard will make it entirely tough to do web tasks. If they can come up with an invention such as like a slide out/in keyboard then I would be standing in line.

That being said. Initially after looking at the ipad im not really impressed. It just lacks way to many things to really be considered as anything but a big itouch. As a ‘grownup’ I wouldnt use it AND use the Iphone there are just to many similarities an no real advantage. As purely a kids device.. well there is certainly some room here, but why get it when compared to an itouch? just for the bigger screen? Again no real true reason or differentiator to buy here and the itouch is smaller.. and can travel a lot more easily.

Now there is one big major thing that we should think about that will help Apple grow market share and that is its Itunes store.
With the deals that jobs is making with disney, etc.. content deals based off of subscription revenue.. Apple certainly has the potential to go viral again.

Currently I love my Iphone.. and while i hate things like “only being able to share movies on 5 authorized computers”(I have more than 5 computers/laptops/iphones/itouches at my house) which is currently an Itunes license limitation.
There is seriously some kick ass potential here. If Apple steps up its content by large measures, I will certainly endup buying huge amounts from apple (as long as it can handle bandwidth). I dont think Ipad is a game changer. but i do think Apple is making some game changing business decisions and i believe that the more products that you have out there to help facilitate that content. the stronger position you will be in at the end of the day..
Finally.. what the heck apple.. why in the world did you make data packages exclusive to ATT??? are you nuts?? – A significant number of us will leave if another product comes out that is truly a rival to the iphone.. if it comes out on another network.. thanks for making the ATT network even MORE screwed up.

Once all textbooks go this route, people will look back and wonder “why did we ever doubt this would be a hit?” Can you imagine not having to lug books around campus or use older already written in and marked up books just to save money? Now you can just buy the books you need without ever leaving your dorm room, and mark them up to your heart’s content. Add in a microphone and you can record a lecture while taking your own notes on the ipad. This could be the device that not only saves the environment by radically reducing our need for paper, but increases the efficiency at which the higher education system operates at, hopefully driving down costs in the long term which will benefit society at large.

I knew right away this was a game changer and while I won’t immediately buy one since I have an iphone and macbook pro, I can already see where this will become a must have item especially for the younger demographic. And it will be jailbroken which will only increase the ecosystem around it. Despite Apple’s attempts at stopping piracy around the iphone/ipod touch, it was the best thing to ever happen to them and deep down I think they know it.

iPad is what I’ve been asking for from Apple for over a decade.
iSaw. iLike. iDrool. illBuy.

Some interesting things I see, some sooner than others from all of this:

There will be a camera – of course, silly whiners.

There will be phone via VOIP. No plan, how grand!

There will be GPS.

There will be multitasking, eventually.

Flash is gone. Good. It is a waste of bandwidth, processing power and promoted bad graphic design. I browse the web with Flash turned off – a much better experience. I don’t need all that attention grabbing flashy stuff zipping around my screen. Check out Pithhelmet and Glims if you use Safari. Regain control over your web browsing experience.

The iPad/iPhone/iPodTouch (call it the iP) Apps will run on the MacOSX as shown by the SDK test mode on the Macintosh for development. It is just a small step to give this to users in iTunes.

It is only a small stretch to have the iPs run the MacOSX. The processing power is there. All Mac software then runs on the iPs.

An iPad with a keyboard is a computer. So simple. Even mice could work. Sitting at my desk I might want a keyboard for heavy work. The rest of the time probably not.

Just for good measure Apple will also run all Windows and ClassicMac software on the iPs. This brings in all the Windows users and all that great old Classic software that was there for kids and education. There is an enormous amount of great old kids software that got lost when Classic MacOS was abandoned. Nobody is stepping in to fill those shoes. It was designed for lower powered CPUs and the iPod Touch could easily run it. Let’s see it on the iPs.

Developers will bring out emulators for all other computers. ENIAC lives again, faster and better. Hi Hal!

The MacOSX and the iPOS will merge to become one with the MacOSX being the complex operating system for power users and the iPOS being the simple operating system that is all you get on the small display iPhone and iPod. This was done before by Apple. The wheel rolls around again.

Multiple iPs can become the computers / workstations in a family, classroom or business all base stationed to one computer (Macintosh or [i]Windows![/i]).

Lay out multiple iP’s together in a line or a matrix, they self recognize, configure and become a bigger display. Cool advertising and promotion stuff. Windows in a room.Think of the multi-user learning potential. Wow game potential!

You might have a small iP (Touch or Phone) for your pocket and a bigger one for home, classroom, work, etc. It’s not the hardware that matters but your data. The hardware is merely a portal into your data home space. People will buy more iPs because they want to have one in their pocket when on the road (iPhone) and one at home for relaxing or using in school or at work with a bigger screen. Watch for the 50″ iPad. People who would not otherwise have bought a computer at all will be buying iPs. This sells hardware which is good for Apple, good for software developers, good for content developers and benefits end users. Microsoft will fail – okay, so there are some losers out there. (Note to broker, “Sell MSFT‎.”)

You may rarely want to buy another ‘computer’ instead just buying iPs. Many businesses, schools and home power users will buy a ‘computer’ to have as a central base station which all their iP’s dock to. Airport Extreme, Time Capsule and the Mac will merge for this function. It’s all there. The iCube is back. Like the iTV except it might be named the iCenter to make it more obvious that it is different. Lots of connectors both virtual on the wireless and physical for speakers, screen, docks, phone, etc. Smart Homes are here.

You are taking your ‘Home’ folder with you. And it also still exists at your physical home (apartment, house, business, etc) on your iCenter. Your iCenters can even be syncronized. Home made cloud computing and storage.

Since the iP can have a file area now you can take all of your ‘Home’ folder with you. Security will be an issue. Solvable.

Voice will become another form of navigation in addition to touch, mouse and keyboard. The tech is here already.

All iPods will become iPs. iPNanos can then be used with a bluetooth mic-headphone. Product lines from Nano to PowerMac are once again unified all running the same operating system and all applications/Apps.

I agree that it’s way too early to call iPad a flop. Similar immediate skepticism occurred for toasters, automobiles, etc. Many of these naysayers are using today’s limited use of tablets and comparing the un-released iPad to these products, which is mistake #1. Not that iPad will be a guaranteed slam-dunk, but it’s possibilities are intriging…

– kid-friendly device, as Mark mentioned
– senior-friendly device (which is an untapped market in my opinion)
– device for the disabled or learning impaired (unfortunately, another large market)
– device for the automated “smart” home (iPad could be the main control panel/hub communicating with every other electrical object in your home). This market will be huge as home automation makes its way into the mainstream

This is the biggest flop of a product since the Newton (another good idea ) with bad timing , bad planning ,and bad marketing . The only thing that is going to make it sell are the hoards of mindless apple fanatics who buy anything new they put out , then complain about it afterwards. Apple has some awesome products, I own a few , but this is a worthless piece of landfill junk . I can do 100x the things this can do with a netbook (both items need sd cards for extra storage ) that costs less with more bells and whistles .
Forcing us to pay AT&T for their garbage wireless at $30 a month is unreal . I’ll take a 10″ net with intel 5100/5300 card for the win Alex. I applaud Mr.Jobs for pointing out that if you dock it @ your bedside “Its an Alarm Clock ” so now i need to add additional docks to the bill . My cell has a great alarm clock and it makes calls,emails,plays games,itunes , & surfs the web too!
I find myself a little disappointed in your new endeavor as Steve’s official cheerleader , but I know you made a bundle in class a share awards being the good businessman you are!

A couple of details: There are two consecutive “o”s in the Doo part of Scooby Doo. :-)

Perhaps, in addition to the door-to-door, fresh-out-of-school home service, quality of service will become a MUCH more valuable offering for managed service providers at small businesses. Technology is a service, therefore understanding, providing and optimizing higher quality wireless services may become an extremely useful (valuable) skill, and for service providers, it may become one more blade in a veritable Swiss Army knife of technology services offerings…

What I hear you saying is that this will be a big hit with kids. If I look at the way that kids absorb media right now, I think that they are multitasking all over the place: watching TV, while tweeting, and then SMSing, and then sending messages on Facebook. I think the achilles heel of the iPad will the lack of multitasking. I personally think a device has to multitask because kids brains are context switching all over the place and the interface will feel limiting to them without it. The Google Voice iPhone webapp is a perfect example, it bugs me to have to jump to a Quicktime player and lose context in where I am. I wonder if you can look at M$ as being the company that lost dominance in the transition to the web, and Apple as the company that will lose in the transition to the social web, which is connected via a bunch of APIs and does not work in their siloed, control-the-whole stack architecture. I’m not sure Google is any better in this realm either because their architecture is not truly open either.

And, btw, if you are worried about any of the Mavericks players succumbing to the fate of Greg Oden, you should have them use NakedEscrow.com.

All the naysayers are stuck in their own world. They don’t realize that the average consumer of the iPad doesn’t care about being tied to the App Store and iTunes. Most would not even realize they are “tied down”.

The poe-pooers also don’t realize that Apple’s products are so wildly popular because their software is intuitive, easy to use, and seamlessly integrated with their devices. The iPod was successful because the software integration was flawless. Same goes for the iPhone. And the same will be true for the iPad.

If the iPad is successful, there will be other cheaper (possible better) clones available which won’t have Apple’s tight restrictions on development.

A cheaper open-source (Android, maybe) version of this tablet would be more welcomed. And it should AT LEAST have a USB port and SD card slot – crap like that is why I will likely never buy an Apple product. A 16gb SD card costs $35. Apple wants an extra $100 for 16gb of non-removable storage on the iPad. Ridiculous.

Way disappointed Mark. The thing made Steve Jobs look like a Hobbit next to it. The problem with Apple is that they are the big brother that they complained about in 1984 with their fancy commercial. They want to strip consumers of all their money with overpriced products that limit competition and control. We will see this succeed because I hate it and I don’t get it. I didn’t get the iPod and don’t get Apple, although I admit the iPhone is beautiful and brilliant, I will get a Google version even if it is inferior because it is open.

I usually agree with 75% of what you say, but I agree 110% with you about that kid going around the neighborhood tuning Wi-Fi networks. There is such a huge need for that. Best Buy says they’ll do it, but I’m not sure I trust the Geek Squad to do it right. There is big business opportunity out there.

Between this opinion and your NBC late night take, you appear to have completely lost touch. Comparing the iPad with the onset of home video games? I can’t even begin to know why you think that way. This product will be a modest success (at best)–nowhere near the influence of the iPod and iPhone. Mark it down…

Oh, I left out GO MAVS. I’m a transplanted Texan and saw my first (since you bought the team) game over Christmas at AA and had a blast. My last Mavs game was at Reunion and they still had Harper and Aguire.

Seriously!?!?!?!?! Are you high? I understand marketing to kids and such, but this is a glorified I-phone, made for Andre the Giant. Flash may abuse bandwidth, but most sites are completely useless nowadays if flash is disabled. If they want to get rid of Flash, they should (foreign in the minds of Apple) come up with a better format instead of being content Nazis.

It REALLY IS something I might buy if it didn’t have the typical Apple restrictions like Flash and their selective App store.

And if the keyless keyboard is halfway as annoying as the one on the iPhone, I will spend my money elsewhere, thank you.

I don’t know what Apple’s vision of the future is, but this thing fills no void in my life. From what I’ve gathered at the press conference and what I’ve read online, I think I’ll just use my money to pay my ridiculous cable bill.

With the launch of the iPad tablet, Apple has managed to become the ultimate digital go-between company for high quality and high price content in a small yet very affluent segment of the population … NQ Logic encourages you to check out why Apple’s iPad is the final digital puzzle for their ultimate connected consumer strategy at http://www.nqlogic.com

Mark, love reading your blog and I agree that people are underestimating the iPad. But I think it’s because people are still thinking inside the existing iPhone/smartphone paradigm. Give it 6 months and when you start to see iPad-specific apps, people will understand the true difference that the form factor allows for. I did write a related post on the subject wrt to the travel industry: http://www.softwareindustryinsights.com/2010/01/omg-pcw-missed-the-point/

This items will be used in ways that we cannot even imagine yet. I am excited to where it goes. Why would college students need to bring anything else to class? It has your books, a notepad, a voice recorder… I could see a lot of professionals using these on sites… Imagine an architect at a building, reworking a detail of the building on the spot, then sending a PDF to all contractors…

Sure, the guy with the spikey hair and Ed Hardy shirt will not have much use for this… But we really don’t have use for him, so…..

The product is going to be a huge hit, but not where most people think. It’s not a phone, though you can buy with a 3G data connection and presumably do VOIP for phone service. Last month, I used 70MB of data on AT&T with my iPhone, but gigs and gigs of data over wifi. When I go downstairs to work out on my treadmill, it’s a big production to unhook the six cables running into my Macbook Pro so I can watch video. The iPad will be perfect for this and for just keeping around the rooms where I don’t have computers.

It does have USB on the other end of that docking cable. I’m not sure what else you’d do with an female USB port. I put any video I want in iTunes without paying anything. I record lots of HD over the air and transcode it to h.264 using an EyeTV tuner. I can rip movies, transcode them to h.264 and put them on any of my Macs or iPod/iPhone devices. There’s nothing that says I have to buy content from Apple, though I’m sure it’s betting everyone will. I’m hoping that instead of having to copy movies to the iPad, I’ll be able to stream from my iTunes libraries so I can just can just get the 16GB model instead of the 64GB model.

Apple will not be able to catch up with the demand before sometime in 2011…

Hate to disagree Mark. The iPad is one of the most unimaginative pieces of tech released in the last 10 years. We know that Apple has been working on this thing for several years now. It was supposed to take things to the next level. I’m sure it will be popular to some extent. But this is one of Apple’s biggest blunders since Jobs rejoined the company. This is a much bigger disappointment than AppleTV, because no one expected much from it.

To me it signals that Apple has gotten fat and happy, and isn’t trying any more. Everything is going to be an incremental update to existing platforms from here on out.

Mark – Long time reader, first time commenter. Funny story about door 2 door networking. I went to a “fancy” area of Orange County CA – and took a laptop with me right out of college. I trolled for networked and then went to houses and offered to secure their networks for $50.
Eventually I gave up because psyco house moms kept calling the cops on me and reporting me for walking around with a laptop with an antennae coming out of it. “He’s trying to commit identity theft” one explained to a police officer… “Ma’am – he has fliers RIGHT HERE that explain he’s just trying to help secure networks….”

The iPad came off too me as a lot of hype and an oversized iPod Touch lacking important features (phone calls, usb, etc., etc.). If I didn’t think before that it would disappoint and undersell expectations, your excitement about it confirms my suspicion. As usual, you are off on this one. You seem even more excited that Steve himself.

The exclusion of flash has nothing to do with bandwidth. Apple left it out intentionally so they could control the games and content that are available on their products. This way people are forced to pay Apple to play games instead of going to a site where they can play flash based games produced by someone else. It keeps the architecture closed.

The whole point of items like the Sports illustrated tablet (look it up) is so that you can read content rich magazines with interactivity. With the exclusion of flash, this is not going to help – thus the lack of support from magazine companies (notice that only the NY Times was featured in the demo).

Another big deal is the lack of multi-tasking capabilities. The iPad is almost borderline a laptop, and to not be able to run an instant messenger program while reading a book, working on a spreadsheet etc is ridiculous. It would be nice to be able to stream music from Pandora while reading, but that is not going to happen.

With that being said, I think it’s a cool product with a lot of potential. Consumer reaction is very mixed though. Is it a suped up eReader or a gimped laptop? We will have to see how people respond.